Friday, November 02, 2007

A 'sensitive family court case' was at first posted on the Scottish Courts website yesterday in an unedited form, then replaced by an edited version when it was discovered that a seven year old girl at the heart of the case in question may have discovered who her real father was ...

Details of a sensitive family court case which could have led to a seven-year-old discovering who her real father was were posted on the internet yesterday under instructions from a senior judge.

Lord Osborne said there were no grounds for granting anonymity and ordered that details including the girl's name and the identity of her biological father be published, despite an earlier ruling that she should be protected from it.

He later ordered that details of the Court of Session hearing on the Scottish Courts website be replaced by an edited version.

The case centred around a man seeking regular contact with his seven-year-old daughter, who is unaware he is her biological father and believes her mother's new partner is her real father. But his appeal was thrown out by the Court of Session in Edinburgh yesterday after first a sheriff and then a sheriff principal had refused him contact with the girl.

The court heard the man and the girl's mother had a relationship in 1999 and she later found she was pregnant Afterwards he went abroad but visited the mother and baby once a week after her birth. He then sought DNA tests.

He later returned abroad and there was no contact between the parents until 2001. He then requested to see the girl and the mother agreed. He spent hours with her and then told the mother he would see his daughter again in a year. A further meeting took place in 2002 but the child has not seen him since.

Her mother married another man whom the girl now believes to be her father. She does not know of the existence of her real father.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Courts Service said that the unedited version of the court case was removed from its website after an approach was made to Lord Osborne requesting that the details were made anonymous.